The strtech of games in front of UC is huge for several reasons:
1) They are one game behind SMU with the tie breaker.
2) SMU and Tulsa play tonight @ Tulsa, then Tulsa goes to UConn, has Temple at home on the 22nd, @ Memphis the 28th, Bearcats March 4th, then @ SMU to finish the regular season.
3) SMU has perhaps an even tougher road with the home and home games with Tulsa, and home and home with UConn and Memphis on the road remaining, as well as Temple at home.
4) Temple has road games at SMU, Memphis and Tulsa and are at home with UC and UConn.
5) UC plays on the road at Temple and Tulsa and finishes with Memphis at home. These are the only games they play against top 6 league teams to end the season. They can't afford another ECU game and they clearly still have a path to the league championship if they take care of business.
It starts with SMU winning @ Tulsa tonight. If SMU wins, Cincinnati is alive in the conference race. Having the tie breaker over SMU is huge. Looking way ahead, but UConn is probably going to finish 6th in the conference. If we stay at the 3 seed, it means our first tournament game would be on their home floor (provided they beat the #11). I would rather not..LMAO!
Wow! Memphis makes a lay up with 7 seconds but fell asleep in transition and Temple hits the game winner with 2.4 seconds to go. Temple goes to 8-3 before our game on Tuesday, Memphis falls to 6-4.
Tulsa @ UConn tonight. Let's see how Tulsa responds to a loss.
I think Frank Haith has already peaked at Tulsa. Lol.
They weren't that good to begin with. Their big win was a road game against Temple where they were down 13 in the second half and Will Cummings got hurt and threw the team out of wack. They only have 1 top 90 RPI win....
They weren't that good to begin with. Their big win was a road game against Temple where they were down 13 in the second half and Will Cummings got hurt and threw the team out of wack. They only have 1 top 90 RPI win....
This is kind of off topic but kind of not. The AAC as a whole needs to make a conscious effort to schedule better for the sake of the conference's RPI. I'm baffled at the RPI numbers by conference where the Big East is rated second and the A-10 is so high too. For Tulsa to only have one top 90 win and last year SMU to miss out of the tourney because of scheduling needs to not happen. And having our bottom feeders in the mid to low 200's is no good as well. Cincinnati did a good job this year of scheduling tougher opponents out of conference and is being rewarded. If the conference as a whole could do that then these conference games wouldn't be such drains on the RPI. I know the RPI is somewhat flawed and I think a large part of that is having 350 some odd division 1 teams to get to rank and skew the numbers but like it or not the RPI is very important come tournament time.
I think Uconn will lay a beat down on Tulsa. UConn is looking to send a message from here on out.
Prophetic so far.